America Has Its Head in the Sand

Feb 15, 2013

RUSH: This is Bill in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Great to have you here, sir. Hi.

CALLER: Thank you very much, Rush, for taking my call.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: I just to say that I don’t share your optimism for our future. I believe in the next 36 months that the Supreme Court will uphold whatever invasive gun laws that Obama seeks to push upon us. I believe that we will lose the House of Representatives in 2014 and I honestly believe that Obama is going to be reelected in 2016.

RUSH: (laughing) If Obama is still the Dear Leader in 2016, I will venture to say it will not be an election that makes that possible.

CALLER: Well, I would have to agree, but as I say, I wish I could share your optimism, but I feel like it’s akin to telling the passengers on the Titanic that it’s just the bow that sank. I think there’s too many people who are too gullible, as you have been speaking of before. I believe that too many people have too much invested in their personal lives, and they don’t want to believe that there is a critical situation existing in our country, and to admit it means that —

RUSH: Wait a minute, I want to know what that means, when you say too many people are too much invested in their personal lives —

CALLER: Well, I have a great many friends who are doing well personally. I don’t have a great many friends. I have friends who are doing well personally. And to admit that the future is bleak means that they would have to admit to themselves that there is a chance for loss of their personal achievements —

RUSH: Wait a second, now. Wait a second. This is a new one. I know a lot of profoundly successful people who have worked for it. I also know some people who’ve inherited it, and those people are not worried. But everybody I know — and I’m not exaggerating — everybody I know who has worked a considerable amount is scared to death it’s gonna be taken from them. I don’t know anybody who isn’t. I find it fascinating you know such people and they’re so invested they don’t think anything could happen to it. That blows my mind, quite honestly. It really does. I’m not arguing with you. I’m just telling you it really stuns me.

CALLER: I have a great many friends who say they’re never gonna take the guns away and it will never happen that we’ll lose the House in 2014 and it’s impossible for him to be reelected. And I believe that this is just one of those issues where it’s easier to bury your head in the sand and say, “No it couldn’t happen.”

RUSH: Well, now, that’s fascinating. Can you hang on for awhile here, Bill?

CALLER: Sure.

RUSH: If you can’t, have to hang up, I understand. But if you can, I’d appreciate it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: No, no, no. I know, not personally, but I know there are people who are doing okay, who don’t even fathom the possibility of losing it, but I’m telling you, the people I know who are doing well, they all fear it. They fear it being taken with a wealth tax or some other drastic procedure. We will continue with this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I want to go back to Bill in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Let me reset the table. Bill, a very nice guy, but he said at the outset of his call he disagrees with me respectfully, affectionately, but he sees no hope. Bill, repeat your theory. You don’t think that the Supreme Court — well, just repeat what you said. Why you disagree with my optimism.

CALLER: Well, I disagree with it on three points. I believe the Supreme Court will uphold whatever far-reaching gun control laws Obama seeks to implement. I believe that we will lose the House of Representatives, the Republicans will lose the House of Representatives in 2014 due to the pandering that’s going on. And I believe that somehow Obama will find his way back into office in 2016.

RUSH: Do you think the presidency is enough for him? By 2016 he might want to run the world.

CALLER: (laughing) Well, through the presidency, I agree with you completely. I think that’s his plan all along. I don’t doubt that one bit.

RUSH: If I had to guess, if I had to guess, you would — well, let me just ask you, do you think that by the time we get to the campaign for 2016 in 2015, that a majority of the American people would be in favor of say, repealing the 22nd Amendment, so that Obama could run again? Do you think the American people, a vast majority of them who vote, would maybe even support the idea of just canceling the election and anointing him for a third term?

CALLER: Well, I don’t know that they would put it in those terms, but I believe that he is pandering so completely to so many facets of our society in this country that these people are going to be obliged to vote for him, otherwise they will lose their livelihood.

RUSH: Here’s some realities though. Maybe they’re not. Let me ask you what you think about these propositions. Do you accept that the economy is only gonna worsen?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: Do you believe that the debt that’s gonna keep growing and growing and growing is gonna shrink the private sector, and do you think Obama’s tax policies are going to further limit the ability of individuals to achieve prosperity.

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: Do you expect people to just sit idly by and accept this and have no problem with it, no matter how bad it gets? Do you think that they’ll be covered with enough benefits from Washington, their health care, whatever, food stamps, unemployment compensation, that they won’t care that this is happening?

CALLER: I believe that this blitzkrieg of events that the president is using to keep the public off balance has managed to prevent the public from focusing on any one issue. I think there are so many things that have happened in the last two to three years that we go from one crisis to the next, and before one can be resolved there’s another on the horizon.

RUSH: But Bill, here’s the point. No matter what poll you look at, be it New York Times, CBS, ABC, Washington Post or even Rasmussen, no matter what poll you look at, there is already sizeable, majority dissatisfaction with the country’s direction. The one anomaly is that these people who are expressing dissatisfaction with the country’s direction and with where the country is right now, do not associate Obama with it at all. That’s the anomaly. But they still are dissatisfied. So how long a free ride do you think Obama can get?

CALLER: Well, I don’t know. Again, as I sort of jokingly referred to the passengers on the Titanic, they don’t want to hear that the ship is going to sink. They want to hear that there’s salvation, and so they will wait —

RUSH: They already think it’s going to.

CALLER: Well, some do. As I said earlier, I have many friends who are well educated, but they just cannot grasp the notion that this ship is sinking and that it can sink, and I believe it’s because to do so will admit I’m gonna lose everything, and they would rather not think that thought. Yes, okay, maybe he’ll take a few guns away. I just don’t think that the public as a whole, the ones that you don’t hear from, there are so many of them who just don’t believe that it can get that bad.

RUSH: Okay, let’s explore that because, and I’m just going by the polling data which I’m going to choose to accept. I didn’t believe it prior to the election and it was dead on. That polling data was right on the money, and I’m gonna accept the polling data today as accurate. So we have a vast majority of people, either overall dissatisfied with the direction of the country, or issue by issue by issue are unhappy with Obama’s policies. Now, they don’t associate him with any of the downturn or any of the sluggishness or any of the things wrong with the country. And they may never, which is why I’m asking you.

But about this observation of yours that you know a lot of people who don’t think we’re gonna reach the brink or the breaking point. I know a lot of people, and the key to them is they all earned it. They’ve all worked very hard, some of them still are. I know some retirees, but most of them are still working and they work very hard and they’re scared to death. They are afraid of an economic collapse that is going to devalue what they have. They are afraid of wild inflation that’s gonna devalue what they have.

They are scared to death of a wealth tax that’s gonna take away the value of everything they have or literally strip their portfolios. They are scared to death of a VAT tax. They are frightened of any number of proposals because Obama is clearly aiming at the producers and the achievers in this country, and he’s got the people who have not achieved and succeeded to a high level believing that their economic circumstances are what they are because the successful have stolen from them or cheated them out of it or what have you.

Now, I know there are people out there that you’re talking about, but I don’t know ’em personally. I can imagine there are some highly paid athletes who don’t think the salad days are ever gonna end. They never do. Even though they know their careers are gonna end in the mid-thirties, they never do think that that their highfalutin lifestyle is ever gonna come to a screeching halt. So I know there are a lot of athletes who, no matter what, think they’re gonna be cool.

I know that there are some people that are not invested in politics, they don’t pay attention to the day-to-day stuff that’s in the media, so they’re a little insulated, and they’ve got theirs, and they think that all they gotta do is keep working hard and they’ll hold on to it. I know they’re out there. But I have to reiterate, everybody I know personally is living in major fear that everything they’ve worked for is gonna be taken from them or rendered worthless.

CALLER: Well, and I have some friends like that, too. The people I am speaking of are the people I see when I go walk my dog at the park up at the end of the street here. These people are essentially making it from day to day. They’re more concerned that gasoline has gone up 15 cents a gallon in the last week in Arizona. They’re more concerned that a loaf of bread is gonna be five bucks a loaf before too long, and they’re so focused on the very day-to-day things that they cannot seem to think in long terms. And when I bring up the subject of the potential for disaster in 36 months, they just kind of wave it off. And, Rush, I’m telling you it is a large number of people. It’s almost as if there is sort of a subconscious apathy that exists in this vast majority of working-class people who just don’t want to believe this because it’s like admitting that the train is gonna go off the track here pretty soon, and I’m just busy trying to find a bathroom and to get a meal.

RUSH: Well, now, I think I know the kind of people you’re talking about. You’re characterize them differently than I do, but I think I know who you’re talking about. You’re essentially talking about people who don’t want to rock the boat. They don’t really want to accept the reality, because that would then require a call to action. They’d have to do something about it and they don’t want to.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: They just want to get up every day, and if a loaf of bread costs 15Â¢ more they’ll bitch about it but they’ll pay it. They don’t want to actually get involved in action required to stop it. They’ll let somebody else do it, and then they’ll relax and comfort themselves with the idea that the country can’t go up in flames. “The country can’t collapse! It’s never gonna happen! We’ll be okay,” and then they just kind of put their head in the sand and ignore it.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: That’s what you’re talking about, right?

CALLER: Exactly, and there are a huge number of people out there who believe this, and it’s frightening to me.

RUSH: Okay. Those people, no matter what you do you cannot wake them up. You cannot get them to see things as you do.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: Well, I don’t disagree with that. I know those people are out there. I had an original misunderstanding of who you were talking about, but I know there are all kinds of people like that. Basically what you’re making is a comment about people and their politics, not their economics. They just don’t want to hear about it because it’s negative. They don’t want to be exposed to it because that means they gotta get involved and they don’t want to get involved. They’re doing okay, so, “Let other people handle that. We elect people to deal with that.” You know, “Let me get my tee time. Is the gas station gonna have gas?” I mean, that’s the extent to which they get concerned.

CALLER: That’s it exactly, and I fear for this country because I believe that, like cancer, this thing is going to come upon them at a point that’s beyond controlling it.

RUSH: Well, one thing is true. You know, there’s an old Indian proverb. I heard this attending a Washington Redskins game. (chuckling) “You cannot wake up someone who is only pretending to be asleep,” and that’s essentially who and what you’re talking about. You can’t wake people up who are pretending to be asleep, and there’s another truth out there. If Obama can take away our guns — and there’s a Second Amendment that says he can’t, buts if he can — then why can’t he take away people’s wealth?

RUSH: The people I know, that’s what they’re afraid of, every one of them. Now, I don’t know everybody. Don’t misunderstand. But I’m telling you, we all have circles of friends. I happen to know — and one of great perks of my success has been to meet — a lot of other very profoundly smart, successful, wise people. I tell you, I know what you mean. I look at Warren Buffett and guys like Bill Gates and I say, “Do these guys have the slightest clue, or do they think, ‘You know, I’ve got $40 billion. I don’t care what happens. If George Soros takes it all, I’ll still have $20 billion. I don’t care.'” I don’t know how they think. They vote for this. Buffett and Gates voted for this. So I don’t know. It is frustrating. I understand why you’re pessimistic. I appreciate your call.